Biographical Data :

Name :

Khwaja Ahmad Abbas

Period :

1914 - 1987

Biographical detail :

Indian film director, novelist, screenwriter and journalist

After completing his graduation and law, in 1934, from Aligarh Muslim University K A Abbas began his career as a journalist. While at the Bombay Chronicle (1935-1947), he started a weekly column called ‘Last Page’, which he continued when he joined the Blitz magazine. ‘Last Page’ became the longest-running column in India’s history – 1941 to 1986 – the collections later was published into two books.

He entered films as a part-time publicist for Bombay Talkies in 1936 to whom, he sold his first screenplay ‘Naya Sansar’ (1941). One of the pioneers of making neo-realistic cinema popularly known as K A Abbas penned many Bollywood hit films. He was the screenwriter for the best of Raj Kapoor films.

A prolific writer, and novelist, during his career spanning five decades, K A Abbas wrote 73 books in English, Urdu and Hindi. His best-known fictional work remains ‘Inquilab’, based on communal violence, which made him a household name in Indian literature. His works were translated into many Indian, and foreign languages, like Russian, German, Italian, French and Arabic.

K A Abbas interviewed several renowned personalities in literary and non-literary fields including Russian Prime Minister Khrushchov, American President Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, Mao-Tse-Tung and Yuri Gagarin.

His autobiography, I Am not an Island: An Experiment in Autobiography was published in 1977.

He received many awards in India and abroad including the Padma Shri in 1969.

Khwaja Ahmad Abbas was born in Panipat, Punjab now Haryana, India. Born into the family of celebrated Urdu poet. His grandfather was one of the chief rebels of the 1857 movement and the first martyr of Panipat to be blown from the mouth of a cannon.